Bath & North East Somerset Council - Partners In Procurement Help for Businesses

Partners In Procurement Help for Businesses

Free access to Contracts Finder for small suppliers
 

Every small business in the UK will now have free access to thousands of lower value government contracts on the Government’s website www.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk.

Contracts Finder is a free new service for businesses, government buyers and the public. This service comes from government under its transparency commitment, and you can find:

·         live contract opportunities

·         closed tender documentation

·         contract awards and contract documents

You can also subscribe to email alerts to receive updates on existing or new items.

Contracts Finder will become the main source of government opportunities with a value greater than £10,000.

The site already displays live opportunities with values in excess of £100,000 and these are refreshed daily. Volumes of lower value opportunities start to grow through Spring and Summer of 2011 as we roll out the service, establishing feeds from procurement systems used by government departments as well as seeing a growing number of public sector bodies publishing their opportunities manually.

 

Help with Pre-Qualification

The Public Sector has a duty to make sure that monies spent on goods, services and works are spent in accordance with Best Value principles. These organisations have to carry out fundamental checks on Companies it does business with to make sure that they are suitably qualified according to the type of work or supply and the contract value.

The Partners in Procurement Group are considering a common core pre-qualification document for contracts so that businesses, particularly SMEs, do not have to put together different information in different formats to get past the expression of interest stage. 

The levels of information currently required will generally include;

  •   Company details and trading address
  •   Contact, date of formation and registration details, number of employees
  •   Details of Health and Safety Officer and whether a policy exists
  •   Details of Equal Opportunities and whether a policy exists
  •   Financial information
  •   Details of Insurances, Quality Assurance and Environmental policy
  •   References

If you want to trade with the Public Sector but do not currently have the necessary policies in place further details can be found as follows.

Equal Opportunities

Having an Equal Opportunities policy will demonstrate that you and your employees are not being discriminatory in terms of the anti-discrimination legislation (the Equalities Act 2010). This legislation protects individuals against discrimination in employment, which includes the process of selecting applicants for jobs. Legislation banning discrimination on grounds of age was introduced in October 2006.

Further information can be found on the Government Equalities Office webpages. Available on the Equality and Human Rights Commission webpages is Guidance and Good Practice for SMEs.

A sample of a simple Equalities Policy is available below.

Equal Opportunities Statement

The company is an equal opportunities employer and will therefore promote equality of opportunity in the recruitment, promotion, appraisal, training and development of its staff and otherwise treat them on the basis of their relative merits and abilities.  The law requires that no applicant; member of staff or customer will receive less favourable treatment on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins, sex or marital status.  Where the law does not prescribe, every effort will be made to avoid discrimination on grounds of disability, religion, political belief, socio-economic background, parental status, age (subject to normal retirement conventions) and sexual orientation.

Equal Opportunity Policy

1.      We are an equal opportunity employer and follow the recommendations of the Race Relations Code of Practice.  We will not tolerate racial discrimination and aim to ensure that no job applicant, employee, trainee or customer is treated unfairly on the grounds of their race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, gender, disability, sexual orientation, age or religion; having regard to the individual’s aptitudes and abilities and the requirements of the job.

2.      We will take disciplinary action where there is evidence of racial discrimination, abuse or harassment.

3.      We will appoint a Senior Manager, (Name) …………………………………. (Job Title)……………………………… to be responsible for implementing equality of opportunity policies.

4.      We will communicate clearly to all staff the Equal Opportunities Statement, with relevant disciplinary and grievance procedures and the name and role of the Senior Manager responsible.

5.      We will monitor all allegations, which include a racial element, to double check that they have been responded to adequately and fairly and according to policy.

6.      We will monitor recruitment; work allocation, discipline and dismissal procedures to identify any racially uneven statistical patterns that require further investigation.

7.      We will ensure all Managers and staff are aware of their responsibilities under the Race Relations Act 1976, Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the company’s Equal Opportunities Policy.

Signed ……………………………………………………………………………………..

Position in Company ……………………………………………………………………..

For and on behalf of ……………………………………………………………………...

Date ………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

 

Environmental

An Environmental Policy is a written statement outlining an organisation's mission in relation to managing the environmental effects and aspects of its operations.

NetRegs www.netregs.gov.uk/netregs/ provides free environmental guidance for small businesses in the UK including information on what you need to do to comply with environmental legislation and protect the environment.

Information on how to write an Environmental Policy can be found at the Envirowise website.

Health and Safety

The Health and Safety Executive can provide help and advice for businesses and there are a number of relevant free leaflets available on the Health and Safety Executive website

In particular the leaflet  'An introduction to health and safety' is very useful and contains guidance on creating risk assessments and a health and safety policy.

 

Please see the following table for Useful Public Sector Web Links

The Office of Government Commerce (OGC)

OGC guidance web links – Generic

OGC Buying Solutions Lists the frameworks that have been centrally negotiated by OGC for use by public sector purchasers.

Education Tender opportunities

Supply2gov web portal New Procurement Opportunities

Direct.gov.uk Includes local schools (by area) , A-Z of Central & Local Government. Also has a useful guide to government and how it works

A site of links to all public sector organisations

SIMAP EU Procurement website

Tenders Electronic Daily

Tenders Direct

Companies House (for duplicate Certificate of Incorporation)

Health & Safety Executive

Equal Opportunities Commission

South West RDA

Environmental policies & recycling etc.(London Remade)

Business Information Publication (for Contrax Weekly)

Business Link - Local Business Support

Business West – Local Chamber of Commerce

Oultwood – Useful site for Council Information

DEFRA – Useful links for supplying to the Public sector

Procurement Opportunities for the Emergency Services

Procurement Opportunities for 2012 Olympics

Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply

Society of Procurement Officers in Local Government

Improvement & Development Agency

National E-Procurement Project

Contact Details for this page:
Team:
Corporate Procurement Team
Address:

First Floor North, Guildhall, High Street, Bath BA1 5AW  

Phone:
01225 477030
Fax:
01225 477370
Minicom:
n/a
Author:
Jim Stevens
 
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